Ask Me Help Desk - New Lateral Thinking Puzzle

Was he a midget?

Were the disks all alike?

Did the disks have holes in them?

Was he an act in the circus?

Did he get made fun of?

Did he get fired?

Did he use the wooden disks for his job?

Was he deformed?

Were the woooden disks valuable?

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Were the wooden disks originally connected in some way ?

Yes.

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Like a circus prop?

No

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A stilt?

What's a stilt?

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Was he a midget?

Yes.

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Were the disks all alike?

Relatively.

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Did the disks have holes in them?

No.

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Was he an act in the circus?

Sort of. ("Act" isn't really the word I'd use.)

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Did he get made fun of?

Probably. :p But not relevant to our situation.

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Did he get fired?

No.

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Did he use the wooden disks for his job?

No.

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Was he deformed?

Other than being a midget, no.

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Were the woooden disks valuable?

No.

Oh a stilt. Like those long boards with a foothold somewhere up, and you walk on the footholds and it makes you all tall?

No.

Did the connected wooden disks have something to do with his height?

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Originally Posted by Athos

Did the connected wooden disks have something to do with his height?

A new player...

Yes.

A summary so far...

Please note I removed two questions. One was simply a duplicate. The other one I realized may have been misleading, and that in fact, it's something about which the details aren't real clear. I hate to do that, but someone may have been on the right track and that question threw them off. I'd say good idea to just review the list.

Did you find the gun? Irrelevant but it was probably lying right there.

Were the scrapbooks and paper clippings related to him or anyone in his family? Meaning, was there a pattern? Yes to the first part. But I'm not sure what you mean by a pattern, though it isn't likely important.

Were the clippings about him? Yes.

Were some about a girlfriend? No.

Were there comprehensible words in the scrapbook? What words are in the scrapbook, or even if, isn't really relevant.

Did you know the man? Irrelevant.

Did the man really commit suicide? Yes

Could it be that it was someone else who killed the man and 'you' thought it was suicide? No

Were the news clippings about the a particular person in each case? Not sure what you mean by "in each case". Is there more than one case? But otherwise yes.

Is there a baby involved? No

Did the tent belong to the dead man? He didn't personally own it, no.

Did the man dislike what he saw in the paper? No

Did the papers have to do with his suicide? In some fashion, yes.

Did anybody witness it? Irrelevant.

Were the scrapbooks his? Yes

Did the wooden disks have anything to do with anything? Yes

Did he do something bad in his life? No

Did someone want him dead? We don't know.

Was he a convict? No

Was he ever in jail? Irrelevant

Did he have family? Irrelevant

Did any of his friends or family die? Irrelevant.

Are the wooden disks household objects? No.

Is that fact that there are six of them have any bearing? That there's specifically six, no.

Was he camping? No.

Was he at a circus? Yes.

Was he at any public events? Yes, but not while he was dead.

Were the wooden disks his? Yes.

Was the stuff inside the scrapbook done by him? Irrelevant.

Do the scrapbooks and disks go together? No.

Did the wooden disks have writing on them or were they some kind of tablets? No.

Was everything in the tent his? We'll say yes. (Maybe not the cot but that's irrelevant anyway.)

Was the man homeless? No.

Was the man well known or famous? Yes.

Were the disks new? Older? On the older side.

Did the papers make him look like a town idiot and embarressed him? No.

Did the papers say he was illiterate? Irrelevant.

Was he being blackmailed about something and somebody went to the papers to release something about it and made him kill himsefl? No.

Did the papers reveal a secret about him? No.

Was he working for a circus? Yes.

Had he drank whiskey? (his breath) Probably.

Is he a smoker? Irrelevant

Was he shot from the back? From the chest? From the head? All irrelevant.

Was he so drunk that he got angry at himself over something he has done that he shot himself? No.

Did anyone hear the shots? Probably

Was the gun still there? Yes.

Were the wooden disks originally connected in some way ? Yes.

Like a circus prop? No

A stilt? No

Was he a midget? Yes.

Were the disks all alike? Relatively.

Did the disks have holes in them? No.

Was he an act in the circus? Sort of. ("Act" isn't really the word I'd use.)

Did he get made fun of? Irrelevant.

Did he get fired? No.

Did he use the wooden disks for his job? No.

Were the woooden disks valuable? No.

Did the connected wooden disks have something to do with his height? Yes.

Was he a helper in the circus? (EDIT: On a further thought, he couldn't be a helper, sorry, you don't need to answer this one :o)

Was he the director the circus?

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Originally Posted by Unknown008

Was he the director the the circus?

Irrelevant.

Just curious - what time is it there?

10.25 am :)

Completing my homework right now for tuition later on :)

Okay...
Does he use the wooden disks often? (like more than 3 times a day)

Could he live without those disks?

Was he the one in the news clippings?

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10.25 am :)

You're only 8 hours ahead of me?

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Completing my homework right now for tuition later on :)

Does that mean you have to keep your grades up? ;)

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Does he use the wooden disks often? (like more than 3 times a day)

Ewww... he doesn't really "use the disks." Look at some of the recent questions.

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Could he live without those disks?

Yes.

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Was he the one in the news clippings?

Haven't you been reading? Yes, the clippings are pretty much about him. (Too much math on the brain.)

Just caused I'm BORED (like I don't have other things to do), I'm going to say that a couple of very important things have been established at this point.

Read the original scenario again carefully. There's a couple of details totally irrelevant, but some details that are important. Think about what could be important. (Easy enough to ask a quick question. Remember that asking if something is relevant is a totally appropriate question.)

As to the summary, there's a couple of Yes answers that have established important points.

Maybe lol. I'm forgetting things and haven't been noticing that some were already answered. I'm really sorry... it's more about chemistry than math though, and yes, it's about keeping my grades up :)

I want to make sure about something. Does the cot has any relevance?

Oh! Did he use this cot to sleep? (this might turn out irrelevant though... )

Was he stressed? (as compared to depressed)

Was he an acrobat? A clown? A juggler? A tamer? A magician?

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Maybe lol. I'm forgetting things and haven't been noticing that some were already answered. I'm really sorry... it's more about chemistry than math though, and yes, it's about keeping my grades up :)

You don't need to apologize. You know I'm just kidding with you. Chemistry - yuck!

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I want to make sure about something. Does the cot has any relevance?

Only in a indirect way.

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Oh! Did he use this cot to sleep? (this might turn out irrelevant though... )

Irrelevant. (But I'm sure he did.)

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Was he stressed? (as compared to depressed)

Hmm, could be.

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Was he an acrobat? A clown? A juggler? A tamer? A magician?

None of the above. (Read the summary again. C'mon, chemistry isn't important. :D)

Good morning although it probably isn't that time for some of you. Anyway, I hope to solve this riddle in the next 6 hours but probably won't happen because you are not awake. Anyway, I will get to thinking and get back with you. Athos, you haven't been here long but you are really helping. We got this!

Were the disks part of a walking stick or cane?

Was the man a real person, or a wooden doll or was used as a prop? (I guess it doesn't make much sense but weird things are coming to mind now.)

Were the disks still in tact?

Were they broken off something?

Were the disks removed from something else?

Were the disks just all together as one and that was all, meaning no other pieces?

Just trying to get something figured out. Was the part about the small cot to get the point across that he was a midget, along with the whiskey and cigarettes to let you know he was old enough yet small?

Are the wooden disks the major clue as to why he committed suicide?

Are the wooden disks in the form they are now, worthless?

Well, I'm up cause a) I'm a vampire, and b) just never really got tired. Hate when that happens. However, I'm going to try reading a bit and drink some wine to chill out and see if I can pretend to maybe sleep. (If not, I may be back - nothing personal, but I hope not.) But I think you're right that you're onto something.

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Were the disks part of a walking stick or cane?

Yes.

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Was the man a real person, or a wooden doll or was used as a prop? (I guess it doesn't make much sense but weird things are coming to mind now.)

I don't even want to know what is coming to your mind - how does a wooden doll commit suicide? Chucky found religion and couldn't live with himself?

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Were the disks still in tact?

As they are, yes.

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Were they broken off something?

"Broken off," no.

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Were the disks removed from something else?

Yes.

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Were the disks just all together as one and that was all, meaning no other pieces?

No.

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Just trying to get something figured out. Was the part about the small cot to get the point across that he was a midget, along with the whiskey and cigarettes to let you know he was old enough yet small?

No. (Oh, well, it may have helped you to see that, but that isn't why I said what I did.)

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Are the wooden disks the major clue as to why he committed suicide?

Yes.

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Are the wooden disks in the form they are now, worthless?

Yes.

Ok, I have got some help from my brother and he is better at theses then I am. His thought was that they were part of a walking stick and since they were removed from the cane or walking stick he felt taller and thought he was growing and that the circus would not want him if he was normal. Kind of off the wall and weird but thought it was worth a shot.

You're actually right about the walking stick and that he thought he was getting taller. (The "indirect" relevancy of the cot is only that the disks were under the cot, hidden. So the guy didn't know they were there, which is of course relevant.) We don't know the motives of the person who was cutting them off.

We could call this the solution, but there's another little detail missing. I don't know about the circus not wanting him anymore. What are the clippings about?